Thursday, July 31, 2014

Storytime is a new(ish) feature at The Hiding Spot in which I share some of my favorite new, old, & overlooked picture books.

Not a parent, teacher, or
librarian? Picture books make fantastic gifts, from baby showers to
birthdays and holidays. As bookworms, we all know how important books
are – be the one who hands that special kid in your life the book that
will make them fall in love with the magic of reading!

It's
bedtime at the Nut house, but Wally and Hazel Nut just aren't ready to
go to sleep! Instead, they ignore Mama and keep playing and singing
their song: 'We're Nuts! We're Nuts! We're Nuts!' It's only after lots
of warnings and Mama finally giving them THE LOOK that these two little
Nuts settle down for bed. The Nuts: Bedtime at the Nut House is a
funny read aloud from Peter the Cat creator Eric Litwin and illustrator Scott Magoon that is sure to have kids singing and
laughing along.

Miss Brooks' Story Nook (where stories are told and ogres are welcome)Written by Barbara Bottner, Illustrated by Michael Emberley

I
loved this fantastic read aloud in which the power of imagination and
storytelling defeat a neighborhood bully. Missy is often late for her
favorite part of the day - Miss Brooks' Story Nook - because of Billy,
who picks on her as she makes her way to school. When a power outage
prompts Miss Brooks to encourage the students to make up their own
stories, Missy is skeptical... she likes to hear stories, not make them
up! But, before she knows it, Missy is creating her very own story with a
villain that she battles in real life: Billy. A great, creative
conclusion to this inspiring story about the power of story make this
book a must.

After
making his home in the attic of an apartment building, Hermelin, a
small mystery-solving mouse, notices the building notice board covered
with notices of missing items. Hermelin sets out to help return lost
items by writing notes to the various apartment tenants, helping to
recover a missing bracelet, purse, teddy bear, and more. When the
tenants throw a party in the mysterious Hermelin's honor, he's touched,
until the attendees scatter in a panic at the sight of a mouse. When
Hermelin discovers that mice are considered pests, he sadly decides to
leave his home behind, until a young tenant befriends him.

Forget Me Not Written by Nancy Van Laan, Illustrated by Stephanie Graegin

Forget Me Not is a touching
story about a young girl, Julia, and her feelings about her grandma's
onset of dementia. To start, Julia recalls when her grandma began mixing
up names and forgetting small details. As her grandma's dementia
worsens, the situations Julia relates intensify as well. Her grandma
forgets where she is while at the supermarket, she is found outside in
the snow in only her nightgown, digging for forget-me-nots, and,
eventually, can no longer remember her family. When Julia's family makes
the difficult decision to move Grandma to a home, Julia mourns the
change, but soon realizes that Grandma is happier in her new, safe
environment. Julia misses the old grandma, when she was her old sweet
self, but she still loves her and greets her with a big hug each time
she visits Grandma... Even if Grandma can't remember, Julia will never
forget.

This
fantastic read aloud explores all the colors little readers will
encounter in their Halloween adventures through bright, colorful
illustrations and memorable rhyme. Shivery Shades of Halloween is a
worthwhile addition to your library and great holiday fun!

___________________________________________

Love any of the books featured this week? Want to see a certain theme explore, author, or illustrator explored in an upcoming Story Time post? Let me know in the comments!

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Let great reads make you smile! Enter for your chance to win a James Patterson collection including copies of Homeroom Diaries, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment, Confessions of a Murder Suspect, and First Love.

The Hiding Spot has teamed up with Little, Brown to offer one lucky reader the James Patterson prize packpictured below:

About Homeroom Diaries:

In
James Patterson's first highly illustrated "diary fiction" story for
teens, the mega-bestselling author's most endearing and original teen
heroine ever proves that everyone can use a helping hand once in a
while.

Margaret
"Cuckoo" Clarke recently had a brief stay in a mental institution
following an emotional breakdown, but she's turning over a new leaf with
her "Happiness Project". She's determined to beat down the bad vibes of
the Haters, the Terror Teachers, and all of the trials and tribulations
of high school by writing and drawing in her diary. And when life gets
really tough, she works through her own moments of uncertainty through
imaginary conversations with her favorite literary characters.

Cuckoo's
also got a nearly impossible mission: she, along with her misfit band
of self-deprecating friends (who call themselves "the Freakshow") decide
to bridge the gap between warring cliques and "bring the Nations
together". Not everyone is so willing to join hands and get along, but
Cuckoo never stops smiling...until one of her closest friends, pushed to
desperation by a Hater prank, decides that enough is enough.

Dana Alison Levy, author of The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, is here at The Hiding Spot today! Not only is the Fletcher family one of my favorite literary families, I'm quite sure they will quickly become one of your favorites too! Read on for to learn more about Dana, including a look at her writing process and her favorite word (well, words)!

__________________________________

About the Author

Dana Alison Levy was raised by
pirates but escaped at a young age and went on to earn a degree in
aeronautics and puppetry. Actually, that’s not true—she just likes to
make things up. That’s why she always wanted to write books. She was
born and raised in New England and studied English literature before
going to graduate school for business. While there is value in all
learning, had she known she would end up writing for a living, she might
not have struggled through all those statistics and finance classes. The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher is her first published novel,
but she has a trunk full of other attempts, which vary in degrees of
awfulness.

________________________

With The Misadventures
of the Family Fletcher, you’ve successfully given young readers a literary
example of a modern, loving family – a family that might not have been so
easily accepted even a few short years ago. Can you speak a bit about the need
for diverse literature that accurately portrays the modern child, parent, and
family?

I don’t have an official
reason for writing this book. The family Fletcher is not a mirror of my family,
nor any one specific family I know. Rather, it was a desire to write the kind
of book I loved reading as a kid, but that reflected our modern world a little
more accurately. I started writing this book in 2011, and even in the few years
since then the issue of gay marriage has exploded, becoming ever more common.
The goal with this book was never to write an issue book that addressed the
challenges and realities of being a biracial (tri-racial?!) family, or of
having same-sex parents. Those books can and should be written, but the goal
with this book was to write a story that was full of universal challenges:
growing apart from an old friend, starting a new school, and figuring out what
matters to you as you grow up. Hopefully it will allow kids with
non-traditional families to find themselves in some silly, everyday stories,
and will show kids with conventional families how many elements of our lives
are all the same.

Your novel features four
brothers with very different interests and personalities. Did these boys all
have clear voices from the start or did you struggle with one or two?

You know, they were pretty
clear from the start! I didn’t even necessarily WANT four boys; they just
showed up. And they were pretty distinctly themselves from day one.

Tell me a little bit about your writing process: Do you outline? Start at the beginning? The middle? The end?

I am an outliner
and a linear writer. I’m always amazing and impressed by my writer friends who
say “Oh, I skipped the first 100 pages or so because I really want to write
this scene.” Or, “I’m around halfway through this draft but I’m not really sure
what’s going to happen next.” How scary! I write a chapter-by-chapter outline
with a series of different pieces of information included (and a huge shout-out
to Janice Hardy and her blog for writing advice. That was a great resource on
how to draft). Then of course I change it as I go along if the characters
demand it.

What jobs did you have on your way to becoming a published author? Is there a certain work experience that has shaped your writing or provided inspiration?

I have had a bunch of jobs,
from the random (housecleaner in Paris, waitress in Santorini), to the
corporate (corporate social responsibility writer for the Timberland Company,
executive recruiter for nonprofits). I have always loved to write and always
written, but being a writer never seemed like a reasonable option.

The work experience that
most shaped my career was somewhat bizarre: I was laid off in the recession of
2009, and suddenly I had time on my hands, young children, and unemployment
insurance while I was job-hunting in a terrible economy. I began to write
fiction, and also started looking for ways to earn some faster money as a
writer, which led me to the freelance work I still do today.

If you had to pick a favorite word, what would it be and why?

Oooooooh! That is a great
question, but an almost impossible one to answer. How do I even narrow it down?
I love the word shenanigans, of course, and use it as often as possible.
But I also love the word crepuscular. And akimbo is a really great one. Gloaming...that’s another. Fetidis fabulous. Argh!! I give up!

My blog is dedicated to my personal hiding spot, books. Who, what, or where can be credited as your personal escape from reality?

Books are now and
have always been my escape from reality. I’m not a huge movie-goer, and I watch
almost no television, but I read well over a hundred books a year. I reread
books constantly, and my sister and I have our own category of books that we
call “Cheerios books” because we would reread them again and again as children
and teenagers, usually while nomming Cheerios right out of the box. Even now,
at forty-one, I’ll pick up Little Women or Half Magic or other childhood favorites
and escape right back into their pages.

What can readers look forward to next?

Well, I’m disgustingly
thrilled to be writing the sequel to The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher.
It is tentatively titled A Fletcher Family Summer, and it should come out in
spring 2016. I’m also working on another middle grade novel (that’s actually
about Anna Bean —- the girl on the farm that the Fletchers go visit —) and a
contemporary young adult novel.